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those who were not among the elite crowd in their high school years, the
fantasy of reinventing one's image has always been an enticing one. That
magic leap from frumpy chess master to Joe Cool is a fate pined for by
"geeks" the world over. To just find that magic elixir which
would flatten that cowlick and advance your Charlie Brown dance moves to
something a little funkier is a remedy as fabled as the fountain of youth
is to the aged. Yet in the case of Dizzy Harrison (DJ
Qualls), the road to popularity may be just a tad too uncomfortable
for most to endure.In an effort to rid himself of geek status, Dizzy needs a fresh start. He needs to change schools. With careful planning, he breaks every rule he can to get expelled. He gets that and more when he ends up in jail. In prison he meets Luther (Eddie Griffin), his cellmate who eventually takes him under his wing and vows to turn him from a zero to a hero. Luther's strict training works, and the metamorphosis is a success. Now armed with an attitude sharp |
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enough to cut glass, Dizzy changes his name
to Gil Harris and begins his year at a new high school, taking up the role
of the enigmatic "new guy." Director Ed Decter (screenwriter for There's Something About Mary) has used his film as a vehicle to question the notion of popularity and all of its trappings. Dizzy's newfound infamy has not eliminated his difficulties; it has only created new ones for him to tend to. Should he shun the outcasts at the school even though he identifies with them? Is a pretty face really enough to make his sexy cheerleader girlfriend (Eliza Dushku) tolerable? And physical difficulties ensue when the bully from his former school transfers to Dizzy's new stomping ground. Relative newcomer Qualls, who played the resident nerd in last year's Road Trip, has had the most fitting life story to understand the inner workings of a character that moves from horrible high school obscurity to acceptance. By his own accounts an outsider, Qualls was identified as the fat kid by his peers and was always too short and wide to find fashionable clothes to fit. "I never looked sexy before," he confesses. Now with two major Hollywood productions under his belt, and more scripts coming in, he can finally view himself as being on the inside. He is now even coolly nonchalant about seeing his face on billboards. "It was bizarre for about ten minutes," he humbly dismisses. 
It is possible that surviving cancer at a young age may have been what
equipped him to deal with such a large life transformation. Much like his
character Dizzy after his rebirth as Gil, Qualls explains his own success
story in a typical cool 'whatever' fashion: "Blah blah blah. Tragedy,
TV, cancer and now I'm in the movies. That's basically how you can sum up
my life."- David Summers |